1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the recovery of embryos from embryonated eggs such as chicken or duck eggs, and more particularly it concerns novel techniques and apparatus for semi-automatically isolating embryos. The isolated embryos provide live tissue from which cells can be produced for various purposes such as the manufacture of vaccine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Embryo recovery in the past has been an awkward and time consuming operation. In general, a manual method was used wherein an operator wiped the top of an embryonated egg with a gauze containing iodine and then with a gauze containing alcohol. A hand-held cracker was then used to break a circular area of shell which was then manually removed from the egg. The embryo contained within the egg was then removed by reaching into the egg with a pair of forceps and pulling the embryo out. The prior art method of retrieving embryos was employed due to the difficulty of selectively isolating the embryo from the egg. This required human intervention since the embryo and associated components are similar in nature, requiring a highly selective system to successfully retrieve them.
This prior art procedure presented several difficulties: (1) due to human handling throughout the operation, contamination is considerable, (2) this procedure does not permit the handling of large numbers of eggs and, (3) due to the time lag between embryo isolation and processing to produce cell slurry in the manual method, significant tissue degradation occurs with resultant reduction in cell yield.